Conventionally, a sliding button is provided on one of various commercially available electronic products. The sliding button is implemented as an on/off switch, a mode switch, or an opening/closing switch of a component of the electronic product. Sliding buttons have many applications and are given much attention by engineers. As such, sliding buttons are widely employed in microcomputers, household appliances, computer peripherals, etc.
Conventionally, a sliding button is assembled by snapping its components into place. However, a number of disadvantages have been found in the prior approach. For example, its assembly is a tedious and time consuming process (i.e., difficult). Further, the sliding button tends to displace or even disengage from an electronic product during the disassembly of the electronic product. Typically, a sliding button, mounted on an electronic product, is coated with a desired color by plating for preserving the electronic product's appearance. Unfortunately, plating can damage the structure of the sliding button, resulting in a deformation, fatigue failure, and a lowering of the impact toughness of the sliding button. It is found that for a sliding button assembled by snapping and plated, its useful life is reduced significantly as compared with one without plating.
A conventional structure for fastening a sliding button is shown in FIG. 1. As illustrated, there are provided a switch seat 40, a sliding switch 41 on top of the switch seat 40, a riser 42 on the sliding switch 41, and a transverse lip 43 at either side of the sliding switch 41. There are further provided a sliding member 50 and a positioning board 51. A groove 52 is provided along one side of the sliding member 50. An elongate opening 53 is provided on the positioning board 51. An L-shaped plate 54 is provided at either end of the opening 53. The L-shaped plates 54 are matingly engaged with the lips 43 so as to mount the positioning board 51 onto the sliding switch 41 (i.e., the sliding switch 41 is positioned in the opening 53). The groove 52 of the sliding member 50 passes the opening 53 of the positioning board 51. At this position, the lips 43 are fastened by the L-shaped plates 54 and the groove 52. As a result, the switch seat 40 is mounted at the sliding member 50 and the positioning board 51.
Referring to FIG. 1 again, there further provided a trigger 55, a sliding block 56 fixedly coupled to bottom of the trigger 55, and a space 57 formed by assembling the trigger 55 and the sliding block 56. The other end of the trigger 55 opposite the groove 52 is slidably inserted into the space 57. Moreover, sliding of the sliding block 56 will move the riser 42 on the sliding switch 41 to switch an on state to an off state or vice versa.
Referring to FIG. 1 again, there is provided a rectangular cover 60 comprising an elongate opening 61 for allowing the trigger 55 to project therefrom (i.e., projecting from the cover 60), an L-shaped plate 62 at one end of the opening 61, and a peg 63 at the other end of the opening 61. As such, the other end of the sliding member 50 opposite the groove 52 is adapted to rest on the L-shaped plate 62 so as to inhibit falling, and one end of the sliding member 50 is stopped by the peg 63 so as to inhibit sliding. A notch 64 is provided at either side of the cover 60 in which one notch 64 is opposite the other notch 64. By providing the notches 64, one end of the sliding member 50 is fastened by the groove 52 with intermediate portion of the sliding member 50 suspended.
Referring to FIG. 1 again, a plurality of (two are shown) latches 65 are provided proximate two corners at one side of the cover 60. A plurality of (two are shown) apertures 58 are provided on the positioning board 51. The latches 65 are adapted to snap into the apertures 50. Moreover, there is provided a receptacle 70 for receiving the switch seat 40. Top of the receptacle 70 is secured to bottom of the positioning board 51. This completes the fastening of the sliding button and the structure for fastening the sliding button is thus advantageous.
In view of the above, however, the prior art suffered from two disadvantages. First one is that for a sliding button assembled by snapping its components into place its assembly is a difficult process and the sliding button tends to displace or even disengage from an electronic product during the disassembly of the electronic product. Second one is that a sliding button coated with a desired color by plating may shorten its useful life. However, this is a dilemma since a sliding button not plated may detract the electronic product's external appearance (i.e., a dull color). Thus, it is desirable to provide a novel simple case having a structure for fastening a sliding button with easy assembly characteristic in order to overcome the above drawbacks of prior art.